In the treatment of tissue, both externally and within an incision or wound, it has been known that a controllable pulsating stream of liquid provides a therapeutic action which is desirable in promoting prompt and correct healing. Thus, devices such as that shown in the patent to Gordon Arthur Newman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,054, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application, have been developed broadly for this purpose. Another device of this type, but developed specifically for use in oral hygiene, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,158, issued Jan. 4, 1966.
The devices for such purposes prior to that of the Newman patent were in general effective to solve some of the problems in the art but certain problems still remained which it was the purpose of the Newman disclosure to meet. Particularly where surgical sterility was desired, it was difficult at best with some of the prior known apparatus to sterilize same sufficiently after, for example, use thereof in irrigating an infected wound or an incision in infectious tissue. Also, much of the prior existing equipment for this purpose was complicated, hence expensive in construction, and it lacked a simple and inexpensive means for controlling the flow of the pulsating liquid from the apparatus.
Some of these problems were solved by the device of said Newman patent, particularly those regarding ease of sterilization and ease of control, but the device there shown is relatively heavy and was neither designed for nor capable of easy transport from one location of use to another nor was it capable of easy manual manipulation which was required in some types of use.
Accordingly, the major objects of the invention include:
1. The provision of a therapeutic lavage capable of producing a manually controllable pulsating stream of liquid which lavage is relatively simple in construction and small enough for effective and convenient manual manipulation.
2. To provide a device, as aforesaid, in which all of the parts of said lavage can be sterilized after said lavage is used on a patient or some of said parts can be sterilized and/or others of said parts can be readily and quickly removed therefrom for disposal and replacement as desired.
3. To provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which will be of relatively simple construction and hence not excessively expensive.
4. To provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which will be capable of long and reliable use with a minimum of maintenance.
5. To provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which will not require electrically driven equipment and thereby eliminate the expense and danger associated with such equipment when used in an operating room.
Other objects and purposes of this invention will become apparent to persons familiar with this type of equipment upon reading the following specification and inspection of the accompanying drawings.